Marie Bostwick
Fiction 2025/ 372 pages
The Oxford Dictionary defines "troublesome" as "causing difficulty or annoyance." I don't think The Book Club for Troublesome Women' quite lives up to its title.
Four women form a book club in 1963 and choose Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique as their first book to read. Homemakers all, we know they are about to have their heads turned sideways. Though, it doesn't really happen. For the first half of the book, nothing seems to change. They have their book cub meeting and then go on to talk about their children, husbands, infertility, marriages, homemaking. It is not until the second half that they actually take some action from their learning. And then, I would hardly call it troublesome. It is subtle, personal, feels meek.
Our primary character and ofttimes narrator, Margaret, does eventually get herself to write and earn a living at it. I like Margaret okay, but I don't feel the author dove very deep into her personality, quirks, true feelings. I feel as though I don't know her. My favorite character is Charlotte, who is a little bit off center. She loves to paint, but it seems she has little talent. She is addicted to anti-depressant drugs. She wears a full-length fur coat even in the summer. She loudly and vocally pursues what she wants. She does not know how(!) to clean her house. She eventually finds a way to channel her energy and tap her passion. Bitsy wants to be a vet but is seduced by marriage and thwarted by college counselors who would not write a recommendation for her because she is a woman. Vic is a nurse with six children, who does in fact somehow return to nursing.
I expected much more from the word "troublesome." I expected them to march or protest. Or to stay in their roles and disrupt and educate; to show what is possible when you release yourself from cultural handcuffs. Instead, all we read about are slight, not earth-shattering results.
So, it may be worth a read, but it won't inspire you. We are living many years later, and witness daily how profoundly the role of women has changed from what our characters experienced in The Book Club for Troublesome Women.
November 2025